The Drug Secret Johnny Carson Took to His Grave

Johnny Carson took a heartbreaking secret to the grave -- sources claim his fourth marriage was torn apart by his wife's addiction to painkillers.

A family insider says the TV icon died at 79 a broken man, embittered by the collapse of his "cold and distant" relationship with his wife Alex. Carson's never-before-revealed inner torment emerged after sources close to his family told The National Enquirer that Alex, 54, became hooked on the prescription drug Vicodin after she began taking it for a serious back injury.

According to the sources, the late Tonight Show host's children feel that Alex retreated into a world of her own, lost most of her friends and isolated herself from everyone else when she was on the pills.

[2]Read more about the secret Johnny Carson took to the grave in this week's National Enquirer!